Features

Intermediate level of access to technology and technology skills required

Seal of Alignment review

iWitness successfully underwent the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Seal of Alignment review for Proficiency. Reviewers determined this resource provides substantial opportunities for students to practice the skills and knowledge necessary to meet the ISTE Standards for Students. This resource integrates testimony-based multimedia learning activities with real-life issues facing global citizens using living history primary sources. iWitness encourages critical thinking and self-reflection, and digital tools are strongly and effectively used throughout the various activities and learning experiences.

“Reviewers found that iWitness is a powerful resource that challenges students to explore difficult real-world issues through guided sequenced activities.” — ISTE Reviewers

Product Description

iWitness is an online resource from the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation that supports Holocaust education by providing educators and students (ages 13-18) with access to thousands of hours of video testimony from Holocaust survivors, half a million photographs and a large number of online articles and support documents. The testimonies are searchable by more than 9,000 keywords, enabling students to pinpoint exact moments of interest within each testimony. Teachers and students an access a growing set of carefully designed standards-based learning activities or create their own lessons and activities. Materials are supported with online response forms and a simple online video editing program. Teachers are also given tools to manage student use of the activities in a password-protected environment.

Seal of Alignment for Proficiency

This resource offers a flexible implementation plan and opportunities to practice the skills and knowledge necessary to meet the ISTE Standards for Students.

Sealholder Since:December 2012

iWitness supports implementation of the following ISTE Standards for Students:

1. Empowered Learner

1.a. Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes. 1.b. Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.1.c. Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.1.d. Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.

2. Digital Citizen

2.b. Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.2.c. Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.

3. Knowledge Constructor

3.a. Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.3.b. Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.3.c. Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.3.d. Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.

4. Innovative Designer

4.a. Know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.4.d. Exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.

6. Creative Communicator

6.a. Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication. 6.b. Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations. 6.c. Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects, such as visualizations, models or simulations.

7. Global Collaborator

7.b. Use collaborative technologies to work with others, including peers, experts or community members, to examine issues and problems from multiple viewpoints.7.d. Explore local and global issues and use collaborative technologies to work with others to investigate solutions.